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W.I.P. Wednesday : Fun with painting (please don’t laugh).

My two months of summer holiday are nearly over, and my list of projects/ideas has been about as neglected as my tan line this year. My big list for 2009 needs tending to, especially because there are only a few months left this year!

One of my desires for 2009 was to begin painting, meaning to start learning how to paint. I was able to purchase a few supplies, and soon-to-be-mamma Maria Rose (who blogs at Little Things Are Big) created two painting lessons for me (Lesson Number 1 is HERE and Lesson Number 2 is HERE.) I was so excited, motivated to begin…but stuff kept getting in the way.

The other day Guppy asked to paint after her nap, which she often does, so I broke out her ganache and watercolour paints for her, as I often do. She started painting, and I began the dishes.

And it hit me that something was really wrong with this picture.

The dishes aren’t going anywhere, and I don’t care if they stack up, really. I mean, who freaking cares!?!

So I sat down next to Guppy, and decided to paint. But paint what?

How about this :

Three Sunflowers in a Vase, Vincent Van Gogh

We have many Van Gogh prints hanging about the apartment, and this one is right over the kitchen table (where we were set up), so I decided to use it as my model. Being a good student, I recalled Maria Rose’s lessons and knew I needed to first sketch the painting, which I did rather quickly onto a piece of paper.

I set to work, and here is what I have to show for an hour of drawing & painting :

My painting is obviously pretty different, but I knew it would have to be from the get-go. Since my decision was so spontaneous I didn’t fetch my materials, and decided to just share with Guppy (or she shared with me, whatever) who had a very limited supply of ganache in primary colours : nearly no yellow at all, almost no white…you get the point. I just decided to be inspired by the original, did my best to sketch it, and decided to make the background blue and the flowers more orangy because necessity is the mother of invention.

So there you go. My first painting.

Ta da!

Now I’m going to try and re-watch my painting lessons and hopefully not wait so long until I give this another go! It was really relaxing, and it really helped me be in the present moment – I couldn’t do anything but be in the now, to concentrate on where I was and what I was doing, which is as it should be.

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I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don’t know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.

You’re such an awesome Mama! I cringe everytime DS wants to “do a craft”. I can’t cope with the mess or the imperfection of our efforts (mine as much as his). I’m so happy to hear that this creative process was therapeutic for you! And what an inspired outcome…VanFish. Love it!